Taking Submissions: SpeKulative Stories Anthology Series

Deadline: November 30th, 2024
Payment: 10 cents per word for fiction and $2/line for poetry. Also, a contributor’s copy
Theme: Speculative short stories and poems that either include trains or aliens as their focal point

The purpose of the SpeKulative Stories Anthology Series is to showcase provocative and powerful tales related to a single theme. Following the publication of our first theme anthology, Automobilia, in 2024, we are now seeking short stories and poems for the next two anthologies in the series. The titles are Train Tales and Aliens Among Us. Publication is set for early 2025.

As each title suggests, a train or an alien (space aliens that is) should be such an integral part of your story or poem that if removed the story or poem collapses.

We seek quality short stories and poems from every genre: fantasy, magical realism, science fiction, mystery, crime, romance, supernatural, horror, and mainstream; from drama to humor, but if you are submitting horror please avoid slasher or gore. ALL stories should avoid or minimize the use of foul language. We want to make these books acceptable to the widest range of readers.

Guidelines:
– All genres accepted. English language only. Stories from across the glove accepted. Previously published stories accepted. 7,500 words max for stories. Pays 10 cents per word for stories on acceptance. Negotiates higher rates for established authors. Poems accepted. 50 lines max. Pays $2 a line for poetry on acceptance. Buys first or reprint anthology rights.
– Unpublished writers welcome. We provide feedback for new writers when time allows.
– Submissions accepted as an e-mail attachment in Word or RTF.
– E-mail to: [email protected]. Write “Train Anthology” or “Aliens Anthology” in the e-mail subject line to help us traffic manuscripts. Include a cover letter in the body of the email noting a few prior publishing credits (if you have them) and a bio. Please ONLY send submissions on paper via U.S. Postal Mail if you don’t have access to a word processing program and email.
– Each contributor will receive one print copy, gratis. Additional contributor copies available at $10 each (includes shipping.)
– We will never consider stories or poems written by AI programs. If you cannot write on your own, from your own head, then we are not the market for you.
Absolute deadline for Train Stories and Aliens Among Us is November 30, 2024, or when the anthology is filled.
Publication for both anthologies is planned for February/March of 2024.
– Questions? E-mail us at [email protected]
Anthology Series Editors: Jason J. Marchi & Jeffrey L. Buford, Jr.

Special Notice to Writers

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As we develop new SpeKulativeTM Stories anthologies, we must state emphatically that we will NOT accept stories written or aided by the use of Artificial Intelligence writing programs. If you are a writer, you must do it on your own, or there is no sense in being a writer, let alone a human being. When we turn creativity over to hardware and software, we diminish the power of the human mind.

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In the words of Ray Bradbury: As a writer “You are the prism gathering the white light of experience, and in turn throwing your spectrum onto the page.”

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Do it yourself — don’t cheat! 

Via: Omicron World.